Bombay High Court stays contracts to tainted contractors

Bombay High Court on Friday stayed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) standing committee’s decision to award contracts to tainted bidders, and posted the public interest litigation for hearing after two weeks so that a regular bench of the court could decide the matter.

Coming down heavily on BMC authorities and public representatives for taking the detrimental step of awarding tenders to tainted contractors, Justice Bhushan R. Gavai and Justice Dr Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi of the vacation bench observed that prima facie, it seemed like BMC authorities delayed issuing show cause notice to contractors with an ulterior motive to provide them an umbrella so that the contract could be awarded to them.

The bench stayed the decision of awarding contracts to J. Kumar Infraprojects Ltd and RPS Infraprojects Pvt Ltd, which means reconstruction of Hancock bridge in south Mumbai, expansion and widening of bridge on Mithi river, and work on bridge at Yari Road in Andheri and Vikhroli are stalled. These works involve a cost of nearly Rs 110 crore.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by social activist, Jaishree Khadilkar. Her lawyer, S.P. Sarnath objected to BMC’s decision awarding contracts to tainted contractors.

The bench observed: “Public authority holds power in public trust and they should not use it as per their whims and fancies. It is impossible to believe that the standing committee of MCGM, while passing resolution awarding contracts to tainted contractors, was unaware of the orders passed by municipal commissioner (against the contractors).”

The bench, while granting stay, observed that the municipal commissioner had taken note of inferior quality works carried out by some contractors and had recommended action against them. Acting on this, an FIR was filed against the contractors on April 27, but it took them 21 days to issue show cause notice to these contractors, which delayed blacklisting them and cancelling their registration.

According to the bench, contracts could not have been awarded to tainted contractors, had the BMC officers promptly sent show cause notices for cancelling their registration. The judges said the contracts could not have been awarded to tainted contractors without active and passive participation of civic authorities.